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EAELY BREEDING OF THE CRESTED GREBE. 



By 0. V. Aplin. 



There were five pairs of Great Crested Grebes on the lakes 

 at Fawsley Park, Northants, on May 11th, 1914. The cock of one 

 pair carried on his back a single young one, as big, perhaps, 

 as a goose's egg. The cock of another pair carried either one or 

 more (I could only make out one for certain, but think there 

 were more) quite small young ones. Pike in the lakes probably 

 accounted for the small number of the young ones. But Grebes 

 also suffer a good deal from the depredations of the Crow family. 

 When I was walking round the lake at Blenheim (where there 

 were many Grebes) last June I picked up under a tree two 

 Grebes' eggs most obviously sucked, and doubtless by some of 

 the Crow family. The day I was at Fawsley was rather cold, 

 with but little sunshine, and the young might be feeling the cold 

 wind ; or they might have been picked up by the old cock to get 

 away from suspected danger as quickly as possible, for I think 

 this is very often the reason for Grebes taking their young on 

 their backs. At all events, I did not see the young on the water 

 on this occasion. I think these were instances of unusually early 

 breeding for this part of the country. There are good beds of 

 old reeds and other water plants of this year's growth on the 

 banks of the lakes in places, in the outside edge of which the 

 Grebes would find ample cover for early nests. And it is the 

 question of the presence or absence of cover, and the early or late 

 growth of this, which determines the date of this bird breeding 

 to a great extent. At Byfield Reservoir, for instance, where the 

 cover is always late in shooting up (largely Stirpus), July is in 

 most years the laying month with the Crested Grebe. The 

 Grebes have been at Fawsley for nearly twenty years. Later in 

 the afternoon, when passing one of the large ponds at Canon's 

 Ashby, I noticed a pair of Crested Grebes on it. 



